The 5158 m deep borehole of the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling (CCSD) Project in the Sulu ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terrain marked the starting point of the CCSD Program. Since then, several continental scientific drilling projects were conducted with funding of the Chinese government and partially with support of ICDP, resulting in a total drilling depth of more than 35 000 m. This paper reviews the history and major progress of the CCSD Program in the past 15 years.

GONAF (Geophysical Observatory at the North Anatolian Fault) has been installed around the eastern Sea of Marmara section where a M>7 earthquake is pending to capture the seismic and strain activity preceding, during, and after such an anticipated event. GONAF is currently comprised of seven 300 m deep vertical seismic profiling stations and four collocated 100 m deep borehole strain meters. GONAF is the first ICDP-driven project with a primary focus on long-term fault-zone monitoring.

The North American Testing (NAT) was designed to test critical functions of a Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) at a site in northern Utah. The RAID was designed to rapidly drill in Antarctica through over 2500 m of ice and then take a core sample of the bedrock. The system has many innovative features that required field testing before the system was shipped to Antarcitca. The NAT facility consisted of a borehole where we froze a column of ice to test drilling and fluid circulation functions.

We compare images of drillcore from the Alpine Fault in New Zealand that were collected using X-ray computed tomography (CT) and neutron tomography (NT). Both techniques provide 3-D images of the core's internal structure, which would not be possible through visual analysis alone. We find that CT scans are more beneficial, as they can image a wider range of rock types, and this scanning technique is more practical. Nevertheless, NT provides complementary scans over limited intervals of core.

A workshop was held in Basel, Switzerland, to discuss the scientific opportunities for evolutionary biology, paleobiology and paleoecology of a drilling project at Lake Tanganyika, one of the oldest and most biodiverse lakes on Earth. A record of the numerous endemic organisms collected from the lake coupling body fossils, environmental history and potentially aDNA or ancient protein records would be transformative for understanding evolution in isolation and the biogeographic history of Africa.